{"id":307,"date":"2006-09-07T22:13:27","date_gmt":"2006-09-08T05:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=307"},"modified":"2024-01-30T19:45:42","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T00:45:42","slug":"person-or-persons-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/307","title":{"rendered":"Person or Persons Unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Person or Persons Unknown<\/a><\/em> (1997) Bruce Alexander<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>About a year has passed since the events of Watery Grave<\/em> and Jeremy Proctor is starting to become a full fledged teenager–in though if not in deed. Although he appreciates what Sir John Fielding has done for him, he begins to feel that he is being treated like a child, instead of the man he is sure he has become. Luckily, there isn’t too much teenage rebellion here, mostly just cranky teenage thoughts.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, someone in London has started murdering prostitutes. The first is found soon after she was killed, with a precise strike to the heart with a long, thin knife. Further deaths follow, and the list of suspects ranges from a solider to individuals near and dear to Jeremy.<\/p>\n

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The mysteries are getting better, although it is worrisome how Jeremy manages to be at the scene of so many of the crimes in this book. Either London was much smaller than it is today, or he had terribly bad luck to keep chancing upon the scene of the crimes at the right time. But it’s a mystery, so one comes to expect things like that–and at least Jeremy has the excuse of spending a great deal of time with the magistrate and various Bow Street Runners, so that would in many cases more likely to become more involved in finding dead bodies than one would normally expect of your average fifteen year-old boy. <\/p>\n

Yet before I pick too many nits, I’d like to point out that these concerns\/issues came to me only after I had finished the story. While reading the tale was good enough that I was sucked in, and thoughts of realism and probability were nowhere to be found. I was interested only in discovering the identity of the person or persons unknown responsible for the deaths.<\/p>\n

Although I thought Jeremy’s fascination with Mariah was a bit foolish, I’ve never been a teenage boy, so that may well have been a reasonable occurrence. And more importantly, it served to explain yet again how so many women in London ended up on the streets of becoming prostitutes–without coming across as a lecture. Another instance in the story also served to remind one of how far women have come in the world. In the past women were chattel and property of men–and husbands and fathers could treat their wives and daughters as they pleased.<\/p>\n

Yet one more reminder of why I’m glad to be alive in modern times.<\/p>\n

Although Jack Black Bilbo barely appears in this story, I was glad to see the return of Mr Donnelly, the doctor. Although I don’t ever get the sense of his accent from his dialogue, I still like him, and like how he noticed far more than anyone in Jeremy’s household, that Jeremy is growing up. I also like the relationship that Jeremy develops with Mr Perkins (although I have to doubt that I month of fisticuffs would be enough to serve Jeremy as well as it did.)<\/p>\n

So although I found some aspects of the story a tad bit unbelievable, it didn’t particularly bother me. After all, if I wanted 100% realism, then I’d be reading non-fiction. If you haven’t read a Sir John Fielding book, then you should be able to read this without having read the previous three books. But really, why not read the books in order if you have the chance?
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Person or Persons Unknown (1997) Bruce Alexander About a year has passed since the events of Watery Grave and Jeremy Proctor is starting to become a full fledged teenager–in though if not in deed. Although he appreciates what Sir John Fielding has done for him, he begins to feel that he is being treated like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,30,33,8,291,742],"tags":[318,556,319],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-british","category-historical","category-mystery","category-paper","category-physical-health","tag-bruce-alexander","tag-georgian-era","tag-sir-john-fielding"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-4X","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":305,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/305","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":0},"title":"Murder in Grub Street","author":"Michelle","date":"September 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Murder in Grub Street (1995) Bruce Alexander The second Sir John Fielding mystery, Murder in Grub Street opens with a recreation of broadsheet announcing the news of a horrific murder on Grub Street. A publisher on Grub street whose family and apprentices were all murdered in their beds. This cases\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/Murder-Grub-Street.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":320,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/320","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":1},"title":"The Price of Murder","author":"Michelle","date":"October 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Price of Murder (2003) Bruce Alexander The Price of Murder is the last, complete Sir John Fielding book written by Bruce Alexander. The body of a child is pulled from the river, and it is believed to be the body of a young girl reported as missing by her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Price-Murder.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":302,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/302","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":2},"title":"Blind Justice","author":"Michelle","date":"August 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Blind Justice (1994) Bruce Alexander A Sir John Fielding Mystery Jeremy Proctor was orphaned at thirteen, after a mob kills his father--all under the guise of justice. Jeremy runs away to London, and it is there that he first encounters Sir John Fielding, the famous magistrate of Bow Street. While\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/08\/Blind-Justice.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":318,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/318","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":3},"title":"Smuggler’s Moon","author":"Michelle","date":"October 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Smuggler's Moon (2001) Bruce Alexander Lady Fielding has gone off to York to visit her mother who is ill. Soon after she leaves, Sir John is requested by the Lord Chief Justice to travel to Kent to check on the local magistrate, Albert Sarton. Because Sir John is in charge\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Smugglers-Moon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":319,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/319","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":4},"title":"An Experiment in Treason","author":"Michelle","date":"October 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"An Experiment in Treason (2002) Bruce Alexander Mister Donnelly takes Jeremy out to Portsmouth to see Benjamin Franklin perform an experiment. Although his politics is reviled by many, others are fascinated by his scientific experiments, and may have some sympathy for his politics. While Jeremy is gone, there is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/10\/Experiment-Treason.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":308,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/308","url_meta":{"origin":307,"position":5},"title":"Jack, Knave and Fool","author":"Michelle","date":"September 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Jack, Knave and Fool (1998) Bruce Alexander I think the Sir John Fielding mysteries get better as the series continues. Characters continue to be introduced to the series, while familiar characters continue to make an appearance and play an important part in the life of Jeremy Proctor. In Jack, Knave\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/09\/Jack-Knave-Fool.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}